April!!! We are almost to summer!

Life has continued to be quite busy, as you can tell by my lack of posts.  Let’s start with an update on the weather and LARGE amount of sun.  Tomorrow morning, sunrise is at 5:19 a.m. and sunset at 10:20 p.m.  17 hours and 1 minutes of daylight!  It has been incredible!!!  We have more energy, are staying up later, are getting more projects done, and are just happier people.  Summer is fast approaching. Temperature: 40's-50's LOTS of people in shorts.  

Well, our church has a new name!  As of May 20, we will no longer be Syndoulos, but Light of the World Lutheran Church.  It has been an exciting and in-depth process, but the members are very excited for this new change.  We are excited to share our new name with the community in all our events coming up this summer.  This new name clearly states who Jesus is, the Light in this sin-darkened world.  It also fits nicely with our abundance of sun this time of year and our lack of sun in winter.  It also fits very well with our women’s group, Northern GLOW (God’s Lights of the World).  God continues to bless his church and it’s members.   We are greatly looking forward to what God has planned for our future as Light of the World Lutheran Church.  A few of the summer activities include a week-long VBS, “The Amazing Dessert Journey, “ multiple cookouts, one church picnic with the service and everything out at a park, Concert in the Park with Branches Band, GLOW women doing weekly walks, and much more.  God is good!

Now that weather is nice, 40’s – 50’s, we have begun our large list of projects.  As you will see in the pictures, I completed a wreath for our front door, and Jason has completed an AMAZING gate for our front porch.  We had been using a piece of wood to block the entrance so our crazy pup can’t escape.  Now, thanks to my amazing husband, we now have a beautiful gate that blends in perfectly!  We have also planted some seeds, LOTS of seeds including all kinds of vegetables, and flowers too.  We are going to have our very own first garden!!!  So now Jason will begin his second woodworking project, our raised beds.  We both are also cleaning out our woods to prepare a place for the garden.  Lots of work, but lots of sun to do it in!

I am almost done with my school year!  May 18^th!  Can’t wait till summer!

Finley . . . well, what can I say, he is our spoiled little baby, or should I say VERY large baby.  He is about 80 pounds and 10 months old.  His newest thing is going all the way down the stairs to grab a dirty shoe and bring it onto our white carpet, just to run away from us! He thinks it’s a game, we find it annoying.  He is still our adorable, incredibly loved puppy.  We are excited to see how he does with all our guests this summer.  Earlier in the month, Finley got bit while at the Dog Park.  Some big mean dog wouldn’t leave Finley alone, and bit him in the leg.  After a little bleeding, he was just fine.  It took till this week to go back. (Finley was fine, I was the one who was more nervous) He is getting several walks, sometimes 3 a day.  He is a joy in our lives, and I couldn’t imagine life without him.

Jason is staying busy, and is looking forward to the summer.  He has added a service to his workload, Monday evenings.  This will give members and guests a chance to come when they aren’t fishing, hunting, and enjoying the beautiful weather.  We will also be doing some canvassing around the neighborhoods.  Summer schedule will be still be busy, but hopefully a different kind of busy. 

God continues to shower down many blessings on his people here in Fairbanks.  We ask for his continued guidance and love in our lives.  There are and will be moments of difficulty, sadness, and frustration, but also many moments of success, happiness, and joy.  God is with us through them all!

May God bless you and your families as we near the end of another school year! 

Love, Becky, Jason, and Finley

 

A birthday cake for Pastor from some of our members.  I got to help pick it out. Packer colors!

 

 My Alaska Blueberry hat and booties. Made for one of our member's babies!

 

Finley during "break-up", the time when everything is very very messy!

 

 Finley thinks he is a cat. 

 

A week or so ago when things were melting and leaving lakes in our parking lot.

 

 Beautiful Fairbanks sky.

Our newly orgnaized and designed mothers/child's corner in our fellowship hall.  7 hours of work by our wonderful women of the church!

 Pic of Finley taken with Instagram.

 The only chair he gets to sit on.

 

 The way beginning of our plants.  They are much taller now.

 Jason's beautiful gate.  Nothing was there before.

My wreath I made for our front door. 

One of Finley's sleeping positions. 

Cold temps . . . warm temps . . . End of March!

Again, I know it has been quite a while since my last post.  My only excuse, life has gotten even busier.  Didn’t think it could happen! LOTS OF PICS BELOW!

February went quite quickly.  Towards the beginning of the month, we got to see some gorgeous Northern Lights.  We went a little ways out of town the first night they were out, and that is where most of our pictures are from.  The next few nights we saw them right from our porch.  Beautiful!  I say that they are the gift we get for dealing with these cold temperatures. 

Kimberly came to Alaska!!!!  She came along with the MLC college choir.  It was a tremendous 4 days.  I flew down on Saturday, and hopped on the coach bus with the entire choir.  I was able to tour around with them for the day.   Boy did that take me back to the good old days of college choir.  Kimberly stayed at the same host family that I was staying at.  Jason joined us on Sunday, and we had a great few days attending her concerts and enjoying some relaxing time.  Seeing my sister was very uplifting! I was really missing my family.  The choir sounded absolutely beautiful each time I heard them.

Finley is 9 months old!  He is around 75 pounds and growing.  He is in his last and final puppy class, Canine Good Citizen.  We aren’t so sure how he will do in this one, but it is good practice for all of us.  He continues to be the love of our lives and is one adorable, spoiled puppy.  He continues to love the snow, cold temps, dog park trips, walks, treats, and any food at all.  While in Anchorage, a friend of our watched him, and he had a great time! Slept the whole next day after we picked him up.  His girlfriend, McKinley, lives there!

I just returned from a week in ARIZONA!  A much needed trip!  I went to see my Grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, baby Mason, and my parents.   A huge surprise was when my sister Stephanie walked in the front door at my Grandparents house.  She had decided the night before to fly down to surprise us all.  It was incredible.  We were inseparable the rest of the vacation!  A few of the things I did included relaxing in the sun, shopping with my cousin, eating at new restaurants, attending the Arizona Opry, swimming in a heated pool, eating frozen yogurt, eating my Grandma’s amazing German food, and talking and spending precious time with family.  It was very hard to come back to the below zero temps after being in the 80’s, but boy was it a blessing to have this time with family.  I even came back with a tan!

We recently attended the Ice Park here in Fairbanks.  This is a HUGE ice carving championship that is held in Fairbanks every year.  Carvers from all over the world come to Fairbanks and create beautiful masterpieces.  You can see what I mean by checking out this website: icealaska.com

Church work continues to keep both Jason and myself busy.  With Easter coming quickly, Jason has plenty to prepare for.  Our choir is singing for almost every service during Easter week.  Quite a change from what they used to do.  Our women’s group continues to meet twice a month, keeping busy with several different activities.  Our newest and biggest church activity is our Easter for Kids Celebration, “Breaking Free from the Cocoon.”   There has been lots of planning and organizing, but we are all very excited to see what the Lord has in mind.  We are praying for a good turnout!  Jason is still busy with Bible class on Sunday and Monday, and several classes throughout the week.  God is good. 

Weather and sunlight – Yesterday was 21 degrees ABOVE!  It actually started at 20 below in the morning and jumped 40 degrees by 2:00 p.m.  The weather seems to slowly be warming up.  Sunrise:  7:34 A.M  Sunset:  8:21 P.M. – TOTAL OF 12 hours and 47 minutes.  It is amazing how fast the sunlight came back.  We love it.  You can already tell that people have more energy.  By Jason’s birthday on March 30, we will be at 13 hours and 27 minutes.  Crazy!  Come to Alaska, you’ll love this sun.  Now only if it could warm up even more. 

Other than that, life continues as normal.  8 weeks of teaching left, then a fun summer of sun and family.  Many church events planned for summer as well!  Remember, our house is always open for visitors.  We know the trip is quite expensive, so once you get here, you have a place to stay, transportation, and home cooked meals. 

God bless you and your family as we celebrate the RISEN LORD.  Rejoice with one another that Christ is not dead, but has risen!  So we will too one day, rise!

Take care,

Becky, Jason, and Finley too!

 

 

Northern Lights

 

 Hat I made for sister-in-law Kristin, and in the process of making three more for others.

 

Alaskan Range from Fairbanks

 Mountains along drive with College Choir. South of Anchorage.

 Bear at Animal Conservation Center south of Anchorage

 Eagle River, Alaska

 Moose outside the Hackmann residence in Eagle River, Alaska (Pastor in Eagle River)

 College Choir at UAA recital hall

 Final goodbye to Kimberly.  King of Kings Wasilla, AK - Tear filled eyes!

 Finley playing at the dog park.   He is actually playing with the other dogs now.

 75 pound love of my life!

 His neck hair is the longest and fluffiest.  

 The only chair he is allowed on.  Resting on his own paw.

 He put himself in this position.

 Our happy family the morning I left for Arizona.

 Ingird and Dan's beautiful backyard where I spent much time relaxing.

My cousin Tricia's son Mason.  His bottom lip thing is the most adorable thing I've ever seen.  Had to show this picture, sorry mom.

 Newest creation, coffee mug/cup warmers

 Steph and I at the car show with Grandpa and dad.

 Mason LOVING Jason and my gift from Alaska.

 Four of the cousins together.  Steph, myself, Tricia, and Cassandra

 Four out of the six.  Such a blessing!

 Mason and myself.  I miss him already!

 View from middle of Camelback Mountain in Phoenix.

My gorgeous grandparents!  Love you bunches.

Steph and I with Uncle Donny

 Ice park

 Geico pig on a sled

 

Leopard sneaking up on a porcupine

 Riding a polar bear

 Big boat

 Someone in a canoe

Still cold, but lots to keep us busy and warm!

Well, January is complete.  On to February!  More sun, less snow, and God-willing, warmer temperatures!!!

BE SURE TO CHECK OUT THE MANY PICTURES BELOW!

We’ll start off with the hours of sunlight and temperature updates.  We had a very rough couple of weeks a week ago.  Temperatures plummeted to 50-60 below in some places.  We even through boiling water into the air, and it just disappeared!  Yes, I know, should have taken video, but we forgot.  Next time.  The temperatures are slowly improving, though!  It is 14 ABOVE right now! It feels so warm out there.  I know that sounds crazy, but we could have been out there without our coats.  Anyways, it looks like temps for this week should be about 4-20 above.  We are going to take advantage of every opportunity we have to be out with our puppy!  Hours of sunlight, 7 hours and 22 minutes! So blessed!

We have been very busy during these dark and cold weeks.  That is why it has been so long since I have blogged.  Here’s what we’ve filled our time with:

-       Jason is staying busy visiting guests that have come to Syndoulos.

-       He also has started a “Back to Bible Basics” class.  We have 4 people who are using it as their BIC class, and quite a few members using it as a refresher on our catechisms.  We had about 15 people there last Monday.  Jason is also teaching a separate BIC class to 2 others.  : )

-       Northern GLOW, our women’s group, is going strong.  We had our Bible study over here at our home.  I got to put my used but new to me Keurig to good use.  It is so nice to get together with the women of Syndoulos.

-       I also had all the 20-30 year old women over that same week. We enjoyed food, conversation, and games. 

-       While I was doing all this, Pastor was enjoying being “outside” in Portland for Pastor’s conference.  He had a great time being uplifted and rejuvenated by seeing other Pastors and talking with them.  He was glad to be back home with his puppy, and his wife too. 

-       Work continues to go ok for me.  Even though the work I do is not my favorite, I am blessed to work with some great women. My coworker started a knitting group at school on Thursdays after work.  I LOVE it.  IT is very relaxing, and I am really trying some new things in knitting.  (See pics below!)

-       Finley continues to grow!  He is 55 pounds.  He had a tiring week with another golden that we were dog sitting.  Let’s just say we will never do that again.  Our little boy puppy is not fixed yet, and this caused many stressful moments.  It is so good to have just our big puppy!  She was a bit selfish and pushy.  Finley is enjoying having all his own toys back. 

-       YUKON QUEST!  It is officially on my list of Best Reasons to Live in Alaska!  We bundled up, (about 15 below), and stood outside on the river for about 2 hours.  We watched 23 mushers and their dogs take off for the 1,000 mile trek across extremely rough terrain, ending in Whitehorse, Canada.  It was such an experience!  Seeing what these men, and women! (7 of them) are about to do.  Their dogs are just beautiful, and so excited to get going.  The dogs were a lot smaller than I imagined.  Also, most of the huskies are not what you would think a husky would look like.  Most are Alaskan huskies, not Siberian huskies.  Just seeing how everyone was keeping warm was awesome too.  (SEE PICS BELOW)  I even wore an extremely warm native coat that a member gave me.  We really enjoyed our morning!  DEFINITELY worth planning a trip in winter to Fairbanks, AK! Please do!

We are SO very excited to see Kimberly at the end of the month.  She is coming with MLC’s college choir.  I can’t even explain to you how excited I am to have her in our state.  I plan to fly down to Anchorage on February 25 so that I can spend as much time with her as possible.  We are still working out the rest of our plans for the weekend, but do know that we are going to enjoy every minute of her being in Alaska. 

So as you can see, God continues to bless us in so many ways.  He continues to stay by our side through the dark and cold.  He continues to strengthen us when life gets tough.  We thank him for all the opportunities we have been given, especially the opportunity to share HIM with others.  We pray for the Lord’s continue blessings on the work being done here and all over the world. 

Missing you all so much, and praying we may see you soon!  God’s blessings to you!

Becky, Jason, and Finley, too!

 Yes, we caved, and now let him on one chair.  He only comes on when we are on.  He keeps us so warm, and is just too cute not to let him up.

 Finley and his friend Sophie (a little over a year old).  

 Finally wore out and wore out and sleeping.

 We just had to take a picture.

 

Put this one on facebook, but wanted to put it on here too.  Don't you just want give him a hug?!

 A cowl I made for my sister, Angela.  It just goes around your neck just like a scarf. 

 A hat I made for myself.  

 

 An lace patter earwarmer I made for my sister.

 My very first pair of socks.  For my cold feet!

 Before all the people, mushers, and dogs arrived.  Beautiful, cold morning in downtown Fairbanks.

 

Yukon Quest!!!  Our coats are both from church members who didn't want them anymore!  SO warm!  As you look at the pictures, you'll notice the mushers all have the fur hood like us.  It is so nice, because when you have the hoods up, the moisture collects on the fur instead of turning our eyelashes to icicles. 

 A couple of our members also enjoying this incredible experience.  Marvin has the coolest fox hat ever!

 One of the mushers taking off.

 This is the team with the Siberian huskies (the ones we think of when you say husky), but the others were all Alaskan huskies. 

 

I just love this picture.  It shows the connection that the mushers have with their dogs. 

 

One of the female mushers.  She is wearing one of the native coats/dresses that the natives wear.  Also, if you look right behind her by her feet, those are her very large and warm beaver skin mittens.  

 

This man was getting his picture taken left and right.  He was wearing a lynx hat.  So cool!

 The crowd filled with brave Fairbanksans and many others.  We stood next to some people visiting from California and Michigan. Just a reminder, we are standing on the river.  

 

A few Alaskan huskies.  The jackets were on a few of them because it was a bit cold out.  Also, you see the dogs front legs have what looks like leggings.  These were on the dogs that were from further south in Alaska, where it isn't as cold.  

Some more cool gear.  Seal skin hats and gloves.  

 

You can see it takes 4 people and an anchor in the snow to keep the sled from moving.  Those dogs want to get going!  

If you want to see a cool video, go to my facebook.  I was unable to put it on here.  Sorry :(